Apple is expected to hold its next big media event on Tuesday October 4, where it will unveil the next iPhone model, according to AllThingsDigital. Meanwhile, Mashable reports that a remark made by Apple board member and former US Vice-President Al Gore at the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit in South Africa – “Not to mention the new iPhones coming out next month. That was a plug.” – has sparked speculation of more than one iPhone5 model.

TechCrunch reports that a deleted tweet from Facebook creative director Ji Lee may point to a special feature in the social network’s long-anticipated music service. In a tweet that was deleted minutes after it was sent, Mr Lee wrote:

The “Listen with your friend” feature in ticker is blowing my mind. Listen to what your friends are listening. LIVE.

Groupon competitor LivingSocial is considering a $1bn initial public offering, according to PaidContent. The IPO could value the social shopping site, which expects to generate $1bn in revenue this year, at $10bn-$15bn.

Hewlett-Packard’s chief executive officer Leo Apotheker has said the computer manufacturer is in talks to license its WebOS mobile software, says Bloomberg. WebOS would give hardware makers a choice beyond Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows software as they seek to challenge Apple’s hold over the smartphone and tablet markets. Read more

The US Federal Trade Commission is considering launching an antitrust investigation into Google’s dominance of the internet-search industry, Bloomberg reports. Before proceeding with any probe, the FTC would await a decision by the US Justice Department on whether it will challenge Google’s planned acquisition of travel search company ITA Software, Bloomberg adds.

Google Music, a streaming service that will store user’s existing music library on Google’s servers, is nearly complete and being tested on internally, reports CNet. Greg Sandoval writes, “Negotiations with at least some of the top publishers and four largest record labels are ongoing, according to sources.”

Kodak is suing RIM and Apple over an image preview phone patent. Bloomberg reports that $1 billion dollars could be at stake.

LivingSocial, the daily coupon website and rival to Groupon, is in talks with investors to raise around $500m to help fuel its expansion, The Wall Street Journal reports. The move comes just three months after it raised $175m from Amazon.com.

The value of Facebook is the subject of two news items on the web today. The New York Post is reporting that representatives of a co-founder of the social network – which could be either Mark Zuckerberg, Chris Hughes, Dustin Moskovitz or Eduardo Saverin – have approached a Wall St dealmaker about selling up to 10m shares of common stock. Meanwhile, according to CNBC, Facebook is now worth $65bn after General Atlantic, an investment company, was named as a purchaser of one tenth of one percent of Facebook.

In Silicon Valley, success breeds imitation. Witness the glut of doomed e-commerce sites during the Dot Com bubble or, more recently, the plethora of mafia-themed social games on Facebook.

The latest hot trend is group buying. By offering daily deals for restaurants and local businesses, a handful of companies have become profitable middlemen between deal-hungry consumers and businesses looking for new patrons.

Groupon has the early lead, with operations in 80 markets and $135m in fresh funding. It also has plenty of clones — from LivingSocial Deals to Woot to BuyWithMe. Now add another one to the list — Zagat. Read more

It was only in March that LivingSocial, the number two group buying site, took $25m in Series B funding. That, apparently, only tided the fast-growing company over for six weeks. Today the company is back with another $14m in funding, largely from the same investors.

That may seem like a lot of cash to take on in a few short months, and it is. But it pales in comparison to the $135m that Groupon, the leader of the pack, took from Digital Sky Technologies and friends a few weeks ago. Read more

In another validation of the suddenly hot collective buying trend, LivingSocial has landed $25m in Series B funding from a group of investors including US Venture Partners and Steve Case’s Revolution, LLC. But even with new money backing several similar companies, it is still unclear if the latest thing in e-commerce will last for long.

LivingSocial got started as developer of Facebook applications and launched the hugely successful Pick 5 app. But the company seems to have developed a real business with it’s LivingSocial Deals, which offers a deep discount at one restaurant or local business each day to users in a dozen cities. Read more

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Richard Waters, Tim Bradshaw, Hannah Kuchler and Sarah Mishkin in the FT's San Francisco bureau share their views - plus tech insights from Robert Cookson and Chris Nuttall in London.

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Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.

Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years. He reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby from 2004 to 2013, before returning to London.

Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.

Robert Cookson is the FT's digital media correspondent in London. He
covers digital enterprise in media, from the music industry to local newspapers and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. A former Hong Kong markets correspondent, he is interested in the interplay
between old media and new technologies.

Hannah Kuchler writes about technology and Silicon Valley from the FT's San Francisco bureau. She covers social media including Facebook and Twitter and the dark and mysterious world of cybersecurity. Hannah has worked for the FT in London, Hong Kong and New York, reporting on everything from British politics to the Chinese internet.

Sarah Mishkin in a correspondent in San Francisco, where she covers payments, e-commerce, and political news on the West Coast. Prior to California, she has worked as an FT reporter in New York, London, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, and most recently in Taiwan, where she covered Chinese internet companies, semiconductors, and tech supply chains.